Sep
7
Is Yahoo! serious about the Web 2.0 ?
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Aug
26
Paris Blogging Events
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The traditional August vacation is over and life starts again in Paris next week. Bloggers will be resurfacing too, with a number of new events planned for September and October. Oh … Fanny’s Party is for mobile geeks, but bloggers are welcome too! See you there?
Aug
17
Solitary Mobility vs. Mobile Sociality
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Christian Lindholm created a stir while presenting Nokia’s new products, including the N90 transformer, at Reboot 7.0:
“If you own an iPod, please stand up”. [Most conference attendees stood up]
“Now take the iPod out of your pocket”, [only] two people can produce their iPod.
The point: “If it’s not in the pocket, it’s not mobile”.
(Via Michael Heilemann, Binary Bonsai).
Surely,
it would be rude to
listen to an iPod while the speaker is talking, but so would
speaking on the phone. And yet, most people chose to carry their mobile
phone in their pocket and not an iPod / mp3 player (or for that matter,
a compact camera).
Granted, no one goes to a conference everyday and usage of these devices depends on the context of the upcoming activity: when you walk out the door, would you rather stay in touch with others
or would you rather listen to music? And if you have a fixed budget and have to choose between
buying your first mobile phone or your first mp3 player, which would you
buy?
Your choice depends on whether you value solitary mobility or mobile sociality:
- With an iPod while on the move, you create solitary mobility, by 1)
signalling to people you are not available to socialize because you are
wearing your headphones; and by 2) shielding yourself acoustically from
your environment, by building your own private sound bubble (ie., listening to music).
- With a mobile phone, you achieve mobile sociality and can connect with the world while on the move, through voice, SMS, MMS, e-mail, internet access, etc.
New converged mobile devices do both, by combining communication (phone), hobby (music, camera, games) and productivity (pda) tools. For instance, with the Nokia 6680 pictured above, you can take pictures (1.3 mp … see example images), record video and sound, play mp3s, use a PDA, read an eBook, browse the internet, “bluejack” (see Nokia Sensor), play games and more, thanks to extensible memory, Symbian S60 software and open SDKs, all in a classy professional casing (weighs in at 133g).
Or, you can switch to “offline mode” (or even take out the SIM card) and use the multipurpose device without network coverage.
Too bad it’s not a dual-mode 3G/wi-fi handset … but that would be asking for too much (mobile VOIP, anyone?).
So, in most cases there’s no need to make that iPod / digital camera / mobile phone tradeoff anymore.
Nokia, let me count the ways …
Technorati Tags: reboot7, nokia, 6680, mobile, symbian, ipod, sensor, cameraphone
Jul
28
First Lifeblog moblog post
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By way of testing Nokia’s Lifeblog service with my Nokia 6680, I’m uploading their picture of Helsinki, which I suppose is copyright free, right, Charlie? Way cool
Update: I’ve set up a moblog at Mobloglife, using Lifeblog and Flickr.
Jul
1
TheFeature :: RIP
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Link: TheFeature :: The End of the Road.
Five years ago, we set out to build a community to explore the mobile Internet. Now, that community is strong enough to move ahead on its own.
When TheFeature.com was launched in the fall of 2000, it was a pretty revolutionary idea — a corporation like Nokia setting up an independent, non-branded site with the task of getting people thinking and talking about the future of mobile communications. Its goal was straightforward: “TheFeature aims to be nothing less than a voice — an opinionated, independent voice for the mobility community.” With the dramatic changes in the Internet publishing landscape since then, and the rise of blogs in particular, TheFeature’s role as a leader in the community perhaps isn’t as necessary as it once was, with many quality sites discussing relevant topics and providing outlets for the vibrant community that’s sprouted up around the mobile industry.
So in that sense, we can say “mission accomplished.” It’s with a heavy heart, then, that we must reveal this will be the last post on TheFeature.com. When the site launched, 3G was still a far-off, almost pipe dream concept, and GPRS was barely a reality. We helped begin a conversation around these ideas; we now leave that conversation to carry on in the community that supported us.
TheFeature has always, at its heart, been a community — so we extend an enormous thanks to those who participated in it, either by commenting or interacting, just reading or linking to us and carrying on the discussion of ideas presented here in their own space. We couldn’t have accomplished everything without you. We also owe a huge debt of gratitude to all our contributors, particularly those that have worked with us over the last two years. We’ve been very fortunate to assemble a staff of some of the best thinkers and writers, who in turn have worked tirelessly to come up with great stories to share.
Now is the time for us to step back, and let the conversation and community move forward on its own. It’s been a great ride, and we’re glad that everyone could join us. So, would the last one out please turn off the lights…
Rest in peace. I learned A LOT from The Feature and enjoyed reading the regular authors there, including Howard Rheingold, of course, and Douglas Rushkoff. Sometimes the comments on articles were the best part. I even posted one or two journal entries.
Sorry to see you go!
Via Ajit.
Jun
1
Open Gardens, Ajit Jaokar, Tomi Ahonen
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Link: Open Gardens: “On first impressions, ‘Mobile’ appears to be only a small part of the entire digital convergence domain.” That’s Ajit Jaokar, co-author of Open Gardens, now blogging *for real*. Welcome, Ajit … and I look forward to future posts and conversations.
Speaking of mobility, check out Tomi Ahonen’s blog and new book (I’ve read the introduction and it’s a top book to read right now). Tomi is *another* cool Finn a step ahead on mobility … and communities.
May
13
A Small World Goes Mobile
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Asmallworld.net (ASW), the *exclusive* invitation-only social network, announced this week that key functionalities of their platform are available for browing on mobile phones.
Link: ASW goes mobile (the link may work for members only):
“Today (10 May ’05) we proudly present our mobile platform. We don’t believe that you will be using this mobile platform in the same way as you use the site in general, but think it is important that you can reach certain parts of aSmallWorld, even when you are on the move. The size of files has been top priority to make download of pages as quick as possible. As most cell phones have regular browsers today we have built this in html, which means you can use the mobile platform in your regular browser. Could be good if you are on a slow connection. It works on all handhelds, Blackberry’s and most new phones. But this is not a wap application, and won’t work on the phones that only have wap-browsers.”
The news of Google’s acquisition of Dodgeball this week and Nokia’s launch
of the Nokia Sensor understandably overshadowed ASW’s move to mobile social computing. The importance of the move shouldn’t be overlooked however, as ASW is reaching DLA nirvana with their partner Broadband Mechanics (French Netflix Glowria.fr is another client) … (what’s DLA?):
“In many ways the final mile of getting digital data into and out of the
home may be solved by wireless technology. So mobile services could
also become our main artery onto the Internet and world of on-line
media.It’s obvious that “anything, anytime, anywhere” means mobility is essential.
Mobile devices will soon be in the hands of over half the world’s
population. Integrating not only gateways, but also mobile driven
applications and services into DLAs, is going to be a key
differentiator moving forward.So when you mix people and social networking, media and devices,
content, communications, and mobility—and add our magic sauce—then,
poof, it’s a DLA: value-added, revenue-generating, cost savings, products and services for our clients and their customers.”
How long before other online social networks 1) go mobile and 2) incorporate Dodgeball– or Sensor-like proximity features?
Nokia Sensor’s developers briefly mentioned in a lecture the synergies between central networks (such as LinkedIn or online dating sites) and proximity networks. Likewise, it seems to me Pleasurecards is an ideal complement to mobile social computing (I’m not a member / would like to be invited).
–
On another note, this year we’ve already seen a number of acquisitions, with IAC/InterActiveCorp –> AskJeeves –> Bloglines, Yahoo! –> Flickr, Google –> Dodgeball and Sabre –> LastMinute.com (for 577M pounds) … As Marc Canter says, who’s next?
Technorati Tags: socialnetworks, socialsoftware, nokia, google, dodgeball, asw
May
12
dodgeball + google
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Link: dodgeball.com :: mobile social software.
“Big news, dodgeball fans! On May 11th dodgeball.com was acquired by Google! I’m sure a lot of you have some questions about what this means for you and the future of dodgeball, so we put together a quick Q&A. Let us know if you have any other questions!
Q: Why did dodgeball sell to Google?
A: As a two-person team, Alex and I have taken dodgeball about a far as we can alone. Since we finished grad school, we’ve been trying to figure out how to grow dodgeball and make it a better service along the way. We talked to a lot of different angel investors and venture capitalists, but no one really “got” what we were doing — that is until we met Google.”
Mobile proximity networks are coming into their own, with the launch of Nokia Sensor this week and Google’s acquisition of DodgeBall yesterday (see also MobiLuck). Dodgeball works through the “friend of a friend” approach, like LinkedIn, whereas Nokia Sensor’s Folio feature allows users to connect based on common interests (see comments about “object-centered sociality” by Jyri Engestrom.
There’s more to come.
Technorati Tags: dodgeball, google
May
9
It’s here …Further to my earlier post, the Nokia Sensor, a new Bluetooth social computing application, goes live today at nokia.com/sensor.
It’s free of charge and it depends on networks effects — the more people use it, the better it works — so check it out and get yours today!
Nb. I’m not affiliated with Nokia.
Via Younghee Jung.
Technorati Tags: nokia, nokiasensor
May
1
RFID Artwork Information System
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Sapago’s Art-FID is a handheld, multimedia information system for gallery artwork. Visitors
borrow the system at the door and then scan tags placed near the works
to get more details, including the artist’s biography, sound, video, the work’s price tag, and so on.
Link: Sapago Art-FID product pictures.
Most gallery visitors are not experts in art and are uncomfortable asking about the medium, artist or style for fear of looking unknowledgeable. It is frustrating for gallery owners and managers to know that a customer has questions but to get only a “just browsing” from them.
Further to my previous posts on Mobile MUSE and Spin-Off Tourism and Gaming Concepts and on Increased Interaction with your Environment, these systems could be further enhanced to allow for the user to provide his own feedback, comments, pictures, photos and so on about the artwork.
Via Engadget. Technorati Tags: rfid, wireless, tourism
